{"id":11490,"date":"2025-03-22T19:13:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-22T23:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=11490"},"modified":"2025-03-22T19:13:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-22T23:13:00","slug":"bloodfist-iii-forced-to-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/03\/22\/bloodfist-iii-forced-to-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Bloodfist III: Forced to Fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Bloodfist III: Forced to Fight<\/strong> (1992)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Concorde\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 88 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence, rape, language including racial epithets, nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Oley Sassone\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Allison Burnett\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Nigel Holton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Rick Bota \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Release date: January 3, 1992 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Don \u201cThe Dragon\u201d Wilson, Richard Roundtree, Gregory McKinney, Rick Dean, Richard Paul, Charles Boswell, John Cardone, Brad Blaisdell, Stan Longinidis, Tony Di Benedetto, Andre Rosey Brown, J.W. Smith, Laura Stockman, Kevin N. Davis, Peter \u201cSugarfoot\u201d Cunningham, Bob Schott, Joe Garcia, Angelo Callahan, Jon Freedman, Max Hunter.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $35,154 (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0Producer Roger Corman strikes again! Always one to make a buck wherever he could, he capitalized on the success of the first two Bloodfist movies by adding the recognizable brand name to an unrelated Concorde action cheapie called Forced to Fight starring Don \u201cThe Dragon\u201d Wilson. It was released as Bloodfist III: Forced to Fight<\/strong>. Apparently, it opened in a few theaters in January 1992. It was the last of the Bloodfist movies to achieve a theatrical release. Like its predecessors, it didn\u2019t play in Philadelphia. Believe me, I would have known. I was always on the lookout for cheesy B-movies at nearby cinemas (and some not so nearby).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Just to confirm, Bloodfist III: Forced to Fight<\/strong> is an in-name only sequel. It has nothing to do with the other two movies other than its leading man. Wilson plays a completely different character here. His name is Jimmy Boland and he\u2019s NOT a professional martial artist even though he has mad skills. He\u2019s a prison inmate doing a ten-year stretch for manslaughter. He didn\u2019t do it; it was a case of him being railroaded by the cops for having the nerve to be half-Asian. He does, however, kill another inmate, gang leader Luther (Cunningham, No Retreat, No Surrender), after he rapes and murders a friend of his. It\u2019s an act that sends him straight to hell in a manner of speaking.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Nobody cares that Jimmy killed the guy in self-defense. As the politically ambitious warden (Paul, Carter Country) so eloquently puts it, \u201cA fitting end to a piece of filth like Luther. But not in an election year.\u201d He wants to be Attorney General and it wouldn\u2019t be good for the press-hungry politico if it got out that a murder occurred in his secure, state of the art correctional facility. His solution is to hush it up and send Jimmy to C Block to face certain doom. He promises the sleazy assistant warden Taylor (Boswell, Hard to Kill) his job if he sees to the matter personally.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 C Block is where they house the black inmates. One of them is a guy named Blue (McKinney, Mortal Kombat). He wants Jimmy dead because when he killed Luther, it put an end to Blue\u2019s lucrative drug operation. Also, Luther was a brother. Jimmy also ends up in the crosshairs of Wheelhead (Dean, Carnosaur 2), the leader of the white supremacists, after he rejects his offer of friendship. Why would a white supremacist want to befriend a non-white? Because he killed a black guy (NOT the word Wheelhead uses) so he must be alright. Wheelhead and his cronies quickly learn that Jimmy isn\u2019t alright with any of it. He becomes a marked man after beating the crap out of the lot of them in the prison laundry.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Jimmy isn\u2019t completely friendless in his new living situation. He becomes friends with Diddler (Cardone, Alley Cat), a child molester who gets bullied by everybody. Why he\u2019s not in the segregated wing is anybody\u2019s guess. Aren\u2019t prison officials the least bit concerned about his safety? If he\u2019s killed and it gets out, it could mess up the warden\u2019s chances of being elected Attorney General. In any event, this guy is all kinds of skeevy. On visiting day, he all but pulls it out and starts wanking while gazing at a little girl playfully dancing for her burly dad in the visiting area.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Jimmy also becomes chummy with his new cellmate Stark who\u2019s played by blaxploitation MVP Richard Roundtree, star of the Shaft movies. There\u2019s one of his character type in every prison movie. He\u2019s older, wiser and extremely well-read. He does free legal work for his fellow inmates. He constantly tries to de-escalate the situation between Jimmy and Blue who joins forces with Wheelhead (who didn\u2019t see that coming?). Stark has only a few days remaining on his sentence meaning it\u2019s a safe bet he might not make it to the end credits. The guy is a clich\u00e9, but Roundtree makes it work. He always adds an extra level of cool.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There\u2019s really not a lot of story in Bloodfist III: Forced to Fight<\/strong>. It\u2019s mainly about Jimmy trying to survive in a hostile environment. Multiple attempts are made on his life. Jimmy manages to thwart them all. The subplot about the warden\u2019s political ambition is introduced only to be dropped for most of the movie. We don\u2019t even see Paul\u2019s character again until the final 20 minutes when he shows up to put on a dog and pony show for the press. In honor of President\u2019s Day, the inmates get the day off from work and a meal consisting of edible food. It\u2019s the perfect time for a riot with all the reporters and cameras on the scene.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Bloodfist III: Forced to Fight<\/strong> is directed by Oley Sassone who would go on to helm Corman\u2019s ill-fated superhero saga The Fantastic Four (1994). It\u2019s his debut feature film. He cut his teeth directing music videos for Gloria Estefan (\u201cHere We Are\u201d), Eric Clapton (\u201cIt\u2019s in the Way That You Use It\u201d), Juice Newton (\u201cHurt\u201d) and Mr. Mister (\u201cBroken Wings\u201d). The screenplay was penned by another first-timer Allison Burnett whose subsequent writing credits include the Richard Gere-Winona Ryder romance Autumn in New York (2000), the serial killer thriller Untraceable (2008), the PG remake of Fame (2009) and the sequel Underworld Awakening (2012). I wouldn\u2019t say they did a terrible job with Bloodfist III: Forced to Fight<\/strong>. It isn\u2019t exceptional work either. It\u2019s half-decent, but only barely.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m not even sure I\u2019d classify Bloodfist III: Forced to Fight<\/strong> as an action movie. It\u2019s a prison drama with fight sequences. It\u2019s like a low-rent version of Penitentiary (1979). Wilson delivers his usual stone-faced performance as the protagonist. Paul is perfectly cast as the lying, conniving warden. It\u2019s a malevolent variation of his character on the sitcom Carter Country. It\u2019s always great to see Roundtree. He\u2019s a cool cat. The rest of the acting is exactly what you\u2019d expect. It wouldn\u2019t be a Bloodfist movie (not that it ever was) without a couple of champion martial artists in the supporting cast. This time, we get Peter \u201cSugarfoot\u201d Cunningham Aussie champ Stan Longinidis. They do what they do and nothing more.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The fight scenes feel half-hearted in Bloodfist III: Forced to Fight<\/strong>. They\u2019re not as thrilling as they should be even with the movie\u2019s low, low budget. The best fight isn\u2019t even part of this movie. In one scene, the inmates are shown watching TNT Jackson (1975). They enthusiastically cheer on the scene where star Jeanne Bell fights topless. I shouldn\u2019t be surprised Corman chose this Filipino exploitation classic seeing that it\u2019s directed by his buddy Cirio H. Santiago.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Despite its many shortcomings, Bloodfist III: Forced to Fight<\/strong> is still entertaining despite not reaching the relative heights of its two predecessors. It\u2019s cheap-looking, clumsily choreographed and fitfully paced. It has a few awkward tonal shifts too. In other words, it\u2019s typical Concorde nonsense. I\u2019ll never pass up one of those.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bloodfist III: Forced to Fight (1992)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Concorde\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 88 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence, rape, language including racial epithets, nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Oley Sassone\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Allison Burnett\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Nigel Holton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Rick Bota \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Release date: January 3, 1992 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Don \u201cThe Dragon\u201d Wilson, Richard Roundtree, Gregory McKinney, Rick Dean, Richard Paul, Charles Boswell, John Cardone, Brad […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11540,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure","category-b-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Bloodfist-III-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11490"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11542,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11490\/revisions\/11542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}